UPDATE - Israeli airstrikes kill 18 Palestinians in Gaza Strip

CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE, ADDS 5 MORE FATALTIES IN RAFAH

By Nour Abuaisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Israeli airstrikes in central and northern Gaza killed 18 Palestinians late Tuesday, including a woman and her four children, and injured several others.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said a woman and her four children were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted the Abu Jazar family’s home in the town of Al-Nasr, northeast of Rafah.

Earlier, he said two fatalities and injuries were reported in Israeli shelling of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

In a separate incident, Basal noted that 11 people were killed and several others wounded when Israeli jets bombed a home belonging to the Al-Wasifi family in Nuseirat in the central part of the enclave.

Throughout the day, the Israeli military intensified its attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp, bombing an entire residential block, according to earlier statements from the Civil Defense.

Medical sources told Anadolu that nine Palestinians had died in airstrikes on civilian homes in the Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli army later targeted a home in the camp, resulting in the death of a woman and injuries to several other Palestinians.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,500 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and around 96,100 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio